Crencichla Wallacei

[aaron]

Has anybody kept these? Are they a dwarf pike?

I don't have much experience breeding pikes and was looking at some of the dwarf species to try my hand at it. I wanted to go with regani, but do not see it listed anywhere. I would rather avoid compressiceps, I have heard some horror stories on it being aggressive among its own kind.

Thanks,
Aaron

[Florent]

Yes it's a dawrf species

[aaron]

Thank you Florent.

I have the name spelled wrong, I think the correct term is Wallacii, or else that is the only name I see in the CRC catalog.

Do you have any advice on how to choose a dwarf pike species to work with? Are some worse than others for killing their mates? I might pick up a few of these regardless, I currently have a saxatilis for feeding culls, but a dwarf pike would be much more manageable.

[Florent]

The best with all pike is to begin with young individuals, put them together and wait . If they are already mature it's more difficult, but in a large tank with shelters and other fish it also work.
The species you have to take depends of the water quality you have and the tank size.

[dwarfpike]

In terms of aggression, I'll post my experiences with them in order from least to most aggressive.

regani -> noto's -> Colombian wallacii -> unkown dwarf (possibly sp. Inirida dwarf) -> compressiceps.

Each step up was a noticable increase in aggression with the biggest jumps from the wallacii to the Inirida and the Inirida to the compressiceps. I haven't kept the other two most common species/morphs (Tapajos regani and sp. Orinico dwarf) but I've been told by others keeping them that the Tapajos regani seem to be more aggressive than the 'classic' form regani. I am eagerly awaiting to test this for myself though.

Note, most of the aggression is directed at conspecifics, as I was able to keep even the compressiceps with dwarf acaras without issues.